Thursday, June 21, 2012

Preview of "Mad Men," Season 6

As we begin the wait for the next “Mad Men” season, I have a few
thoughts regarding the events that will shape it.Though Matt Weiner has frequently noted that
the show is not a history lesson, it is very likely that season six will take
place in 1968, as it would be surprising to produce a show about the 1960s and
omit its most eventful year.While we
can’t anticipate the personal challenges that await Don Draper and the other
characters, we do know the major historical events that are to follow.

Vietnam took center stage at the outset of the fateful year.Throughout the fall of 1967, the Johnson Administration
repeatedly suggested the U.S. military was making progress against the Viet Cong
and North Vietnamese Army and that the nation could see “the light at the end
of the tunnel.”The communist allies,
however, punctured this optimism when they launched a massive attack in January
1968 called the Tet Offensive.Though
the U.S. military eventually repelled it, the communists’ ability to launch a
nationwide attack weakened public support for the war and destroyed Johnson’s remaining
credibility.

In the aftermath of Tet, Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota garnered
42 percent of the vote running as an anti-war candidate against Johnson in the
New Hampshire primary.Though McCarthy
lost, his strong performance revealed how much the war had weakened LBJ.Robert Kennedy, who had been the first choice
of the anti-war forces, then entered the race, setting off one of the most
dramatic primary battles in American history.With his popularity crumbling, Johnson announced that he would not seek
re-election on March 31.

A week later, James Early Ray assassinated Martin Luther King, Jr. in
Memphis, Tennessee.King had been preparing
for his Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include a march on Washington D.C.
to demand greater funding for anti-poverty programs, which had been diminished
by the diversion of resources to the war.In accordance with his new emphasis on economic inequality, King
accepted an invitation to support the sanitation strike in Memphis, where garbage
workers were fighting for better pay and work conditions.After his assassination, riots broke out in
125 cities across the country, adding to the national sense of disorder.

RFK and McCarthy continued to battle it out in the Democratic primaries.Echoing the 2008 race between Hilary Clinton
and Barack Obama, RFK’s support came largely from blue-collar whites while
McCarthy’s backing came primarily from upscale constituencies.Many viewed Kennedy as the only person who
could still speak to both sides of the cultural divide in America, as he
retained credibility with working-class whites as well as minorities.After winning the crucial California primary over
McCarthy on June 6, RFK was shot and killed by Sirhan Sirhan in Los Angeles.

Even if Kennedy had lived, he would have faced an uphill battle to win the
Democratic nomination.At this time,
only a small number of delegates were allocated through primaries and caucuses,
as party officials still controlled the nominating process.Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, the choice of
the establishment, was virtually certain to win the nomination.

With no real possibility of an anti-war nominee, the radical faction of
the peace movement mobilized to protest at the 1968 Democratic convention in
Chicago.Mayor Richard Daley and the
city government refused to provide marching permits and confrontations with the
local police ensued.Eventually, police
and the protesters squared off outside the convention hall and a national
television audience watched the cops use tear gas and violence against the
militants.Humphrey received the
nomination inside, but it was clear the violence outside had seriously damaged
his candidacy.

The fall campaign witnessed a presidential race between Humphrey,
Republican nominee Richard Nixon, and the independent candidacy of Alabama Governor
George Wallace.Both Nixon and Wallace
campaigned strongly on the theme of “law and order,” declaring they would clamp
down on rising crime, urban riots, and anti-war demonstrators.As I pointed out in a previous post, it is
important to remember than many Americans disdained and resisted the social
changes of the 1960s.See http://popculturemeetshistory.blogspot.com/2012/03/mad-men-season-5-premiere-part-2.html

Well behind at the outset of the general election campaign, Humphrey
began to gain traction in September after he made a speech calling for more
aggressive action to achieve peace in Vietnam, distancing himself from the
unpopular Johnson.His campaign started
to reduce Nixon’s lead, particularly as labor unions worked to move frustrated
blue-collar voters away from supporting Wallace and back into their traditional
home in the Democratic Party.In the
end, though, Nixon edged out Humphrey for a narrow victory in the November
election.

The year ended on an upbeat note as Apollo 8, the first spacecraft to
orbit the moon, sent back incredible images of Earth on Christmas Eve.Nevertheless, 1968 was a turbulent and
divisive year and its repercussions would echo for decades to come.It will be interesting to see how Don, Peggy,
Joan, and Roger navigate its travails.